IIT-Madras incubated venture, Earthfokus manufactures water savers

As the frequency of washing hands increases four times and remains one of the easiest and important ways to stay safe during the pandemic, Earthfokus manufactures water savers that save more than 95% water from an existing tap. IIT-Madras incubated startup’s patent-pending atomisation technology converts normal flow to fine mist, creating one layer of water over the surface which is more than enough to wash hands.

Started as an accidental venture, Earthfockus was Founded by Arun Subramaniam when his Engineering mentor asked him for a water saver attached to the tap. “She told me she wanted to save maximum water and instead of buying one, she asked me to make one,” said Subramaniam in a conversation with Financial Express. After working for two months on the basic product, Subramaniam came up with his water saver. Later, his professor that the product could be commercialised and that’s how Earthfokus came up.

Although the startup’s sales were not that great, they gave a demo to one of the biggest IT companies in early 2019. “We went over there, they had given us some feed back and we made some corrections to make the product fool proof. Exactly one month ahead of the water scarcity that hit Chennai in 2019, the company installed the product in all its offices in the city and the savings were huge,” Subramaniam told Financial Express.

Later, the company got incubated at IIT-Madras and got connected with big corporates for its products. “For B2B, our biggest marketing is by word-of-mouth. R&D is core for our company and we make quality products. For instance, our products are made out of metal, not of plastics,” he told Financial Express. Their sales also increased by the end of 2019, owing to the water scarcity in Chennai.

Considering that an average handwash can waste up to 1 litre of water, Earthfokus’ Ecomist decreases the discharge by atomising water and converting it to mist, thus saving 95% water from the tap- reduces the water output from 8-12 LPM (litres per minute) to 0.4 LPM.

Their Ecoshower tap water savers convert normal flow to angled shower output and reduces the flow from 10-2 LPM (litres per minute) to 1.5-2 LPM. An angled shower saves up to 85% water compared to an ordinary aerator. Quamist is a dual-mode water-saving attachment for taps and faucets which can be attached to an existing tap within a minute- reducing the water output by 95% by converting the normal flow to fine mist.